Danielle Laraque-Arena

SUNY Upstate Medical University President Danielle Laraque-Arena will step down from her position at the end of the current semester in December, according to a news release from the State University of New York.

Upstate Medical University has opened its cord blood bank, only the second facility of its kind in the state. Blood from umbilical cords is processed for stem cells, which can treat cancers and other diseases. The bank is open for public and private use.

Nicole Moore is the first mother to donate her son Jackson’s umbilical cord blood to the Upstate Cord Blood Bank.

SUNY Upstate Medical University’s new president will be holding a series of symposiums to look for solutions to issues that face health care providers in central New York. Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena hopes a studying issues like poverty and mental health can help the medical community deal with them.

"Help me succeed in connecting us in a joint purpose in improving lives. Our region is small enough so that anonymity is not a problem. We can know each other and learn to problem solve together,” said Laraque-Arena.

A new president is on the job this week at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. After more than four months getting to know the community, Danielle Laraque-Arena is replacing interim president Greg Eastwood, and wants collaboration to be a focus of her leadership.

“I think the best science emerges when you have effective teams. Medicine in the 21st century is all about team based care. It’s not me as a physician, what I can do individually, because what I can do individually can be augmented and magnified if I can do it effectively as a team,” said Laraque-Arena.

Upstate Medical University’s incoming president has spent some time this month getting to know her new community.

In January, Danielle Laraque-Arena will take the reins of institution that is a hospital, but also an educational center. As vice president of Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospital of Brooklyn, she’s been involved in a lot of community-based work, and expects that to continue in Syracuse.